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28 August 2018

The LEGO® Minifigure at 40: Moulds

The LEGO® Group have sent us these amazing images to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the LEGO minifigure and we just had to share them with you.

How are LEGO® minifigures made? Here are all the different moulds that make the parts needed for one LEGO minifigure. Click/tap any image to enlarge.

Let's take a closer look at some of the moulds. First up, a mould that produces eight heads.

Note how three separate segments go to make up the mould that creates minifigure heads – an advantage of this is that if one of the two connection points proves faulty, they don't have to replace the entire mould, just that segment.

Two torsos are made in this smaller round mould, and the arms and hands are produced in separate moulds and attached later by machines.

Now for the leg assembly.

Again, the parts are made separately – hips and the left and right legs.

It's fascinating to see these huge moulds in such detail. Mould construction has improved so much over the years that the head mould, which used to spit out eight heads every 9.8 seconds, can now create 128 heads every 14.7 seconds! That's equivalent to more than 8 heads per second.

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